Oculus World Trade Center
White-steel transit hub shaped like a dove in flight, its skylight opening each September eleventh.
Location
About this audio guide
This guide to the Oculus at the World Trade Center traces how the transit hub's white steel ribs came from a single image architect Santiago Calatrava described when he unveiled his design in 2004: a child releasing a dove. It follows the project's ballooning budget, from an original two-billion-dollar estimate to critics calling the finished building the carcass of a Thanksgiving turkey, and the subway line the city refused to close during construction. Listen for how sunlight moves through the building's spine every September eleventh.
This audio guide was created using AI.
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